Dynasty Warriors: Next

While I was away on vacation, I borrowed my boyfriends PS Vita and he bought me Dynasty Warriors:Next to play on it. Anyone who knows me knows I love the Dynasty Warriors games, I don’t care what any snooty game reviews say (or stuck-up sexist male gamers), I like them and I will keep buying them!

Anyway lets step away from the rant before it goes on for too long haha. When I first saw the game I figured it was just a port of Dynasty Warriors 7 for the PS Vita and therefore wasn’t too excited about it since I have played that to death on the PS3. I was wrong of course, with DW:Next offering a new story mode, conquest mode which is similar to empires, an edit mode, and also some other multi-player modes that I didn’t really pay much attention to since I have no one to play with. Q_Q

Story Mode:

The story modes will follow the usual Dynasty Warriors Storyline from the views of different forces, then as your progress new scenarios will become available. The new scenarios will allow you to unite the land under Wei, Shu and Wu and then achieve a make-believe ending where that force has won the war. Jin can also be unlocked and the same kind of make-believe story can be followed, and a nice surprise Lu Bu and Diao Chan also get their own short story but sadly it does not involve any cut scenes. All cut scenes are new and unique to DW:Next! \^o^/

Conquest Mode:

Conquest mode allows you to create your own army, which will be made up of your one chosen ruler and some officers. Conquest mode is similar to Empires mode from previous games, allowing you to get married or have a sworn sibling oath. Once you have made these oaths characters will present you with gifts and special events. It is also possible to play online which will place other players armys on your map, and yours on their map.

You will also be prompted by the peasants to either help or ignore them, which option you choose will effect whether you are good or evil. Being evil may result in officers leaving your command.

One thing that bugs me about conquest mode is the fact you cannot choose to defend your land! It means that for sometime you could just be going around in circles, you take a land, enemy takes a land, you take a land, enemy takes a land; over and over until you get bored and just go straight for their commander. Also unlike in empires there is no ending displaying cute scenes of your officers.

Edit Mode:

Like my little PhiPhi? ^_^

I was pleasantly surprised when I saw there was an edit mode present! I had heard that the edit mode in DW:Next was exactly the same as in DW6:Empires. The face, body, color and hair choices are the same however there are some new armor options that were not available in Empires. It’s really nice to be able to see other peoples edit characters in Conquest Mode as it gives me some great ideas for ones to make myself! The down side is it’s actually pretty slow to get new armor, the game has a rank which will go up as you complete battles. Every time you rank up some new equipment for editing your characters will become available, at first ranking up is quite fast but it quickly slows down and becomes a little tedious.

Gala mode:

The game features a challenge mode which will allow you to aim for the high score in a number of games.

Steeplechase – You will be on a horse for this match and the goal is to get to the finish line as fast as possible, there are obstacles of course and items which will -5 off your total time.

Calligrapher – In this game you must touch the back of the PSVita in order to find the kanji word (?). Personally I hate this one I have no idea what I’m doing in it. =_=’

Bastion – Soldiers will pretty much rush at you and you cut them down my swiping the touch screen until time runs out.

Marksman- Kind of like a mini fps with arrows, you move the vita in the direction you want to fire and then touch the screen to shoot the arrows.

Musou Snapshots – Just the PSVita camera with some Dynasty warriors characters and items stickers to put in the photo.

Gameplay:

Dynasty Warriors:Next has made pretty good use of the PS Vitas touch screen features. You have the choice to use a musou which is unique to this game for all characters, which will involves using either the front of back touch screen to control and attack. During battle ambushes may happen which may involve you tapping the screen to defeat enemies or stop arrows.

About once every battle a duel between your character and an enemy officer will appear, at first I thought duels were pretty interesting, then after a while they became tedious, and then they just became so annoying! They really aren’t hard, they are just so tedious and boring, why would I wanna stop kicking hundreds of guys asses with each hit just to kick one guys ass really slowly! xD
Apart from the use of touch screen, most of the old Dynasty Warriors combat system is still the same.

Overall Score: 7/10

Not the best Dynasty Warriors game, but it was a lot of fun and a life saver while I was away on vacation! I’m so excited for Dynasty Warriors 7:Empires and this was really fun to play in the meantime!

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3 responses to “Dynasty Warriors: Next”

I’ve always been a great fan of Dynasty Warriors, though I must say I only played V and VI on PS, if I remember correctly. Just as you, I find them fun to play, and I don’t really pay attention to their reviews. A fun game is still a fun game even if it doesn’t change my life!